MD drug anti-gouging bill passes into law, CT Senate passes drug benefits fairness bill

On Friday, a Maryland billto control generic drug prices passed into law without the Governor’s signature. Maryland’s Attorney General Frosh championed this first-in-the-nation anti-gouging bill. The issue was raised in response to extreme price increases in older drugs such as EpiPen, naloxone, and Daraprim. The bill requires Maryland’s Medicaid program to notify the Attorney General…

Read More

CBO estimates that AHCA would cause 23 million more uninsured in ten years

In more federal health news, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released their analysis of the impact of the House’s American Health Care Act yesterday. CBO predicts that 23 million more Americans would lose health coverage in the next decade, 14 million just next year, if the AHCA becomes law. The law would reduce the federal…

Read More

President’s budget proposal includes large cuts to state Medicaid funding, among other health programs

President Trump’s FY 2018 budget proposalincludes $610 billion in mandatory savings over the next decade by instituting state Medicaid block grants or per capita caps starting in FY 2020. This goes beyond cuts included in the American Health Care Act passed by the House of Representatives three weeks ago, that is estimated to cost Connecticut…

Read More

Alert: CMS seeking public comment on new informed consent payment proposal

Some good news — th. Click here  for more info, links to the proposed rule and the measure specifics, a customizable template for comments, and directions on how to submit comments. There is an exciting new opportunity to support patient-centered care and make a meaningful impact on the quality of care in hospitals across the…

Read More

Health care has highest job opening rate in US

At 5.2% in March, the health care and social assistance sector had the highest rate of job openings in the US labor market, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However the rate of hiring in health care and social assistance was only average. At 19.3 million the health care and social assistance sector had…

Read More

2016 estimate finds CT uninsured rates going down

Early estimates of health coverage finds that 3.9% of CT residents were uninsured last year, well below the US average of 9%, according to the CDC’s National Health Interview Survey. CT’s uninsured rate fell by 7.2% between 2013 and 2016, very close to the national 8.0% drop. Last year 41.6% of state residents had public…

Read More

New state health comparison tool shows challenges and opportunities for CT

In good news, CT is 11th best among states in the number of people who had no trouble finding a doctor in 2015 according to State Health Compare. But CT is also 17th worst among states in the percent of residents with high medical cost burdens. Depending on how you look at it, it may…

Read More

Health Care Cabinet tackles drug costs

At yesterday’s meeting, CT’s Health Care Cabinet agreed to create four working groups to develop recommendations and options to control drug spending in the state. We also reviewed a report from CT’s APCD on the Top 50 Highest Total Cost Drugs in CT. The Cabinet has been taking a deep dive into rising prescription drug…

Read More

CT rates well among states in public health emergency preparation, but room for improvement

This year CT earned 7.3 points out of 10 possible in the latest assessment of preparedness for community health emergencies, a small increase from 7.2 over last year. But CT did better than the US average at 6.8. The National Health Security Preparedness Index has measured states’ ability to respond to health security threats such…

Read More

May CT Health Reform Dashboard – Medicaid U turn, federal relief premature

CT’s May Health Reform Dashboard is unsettled again. Mistrust remains at the core of problems in CT. Medicaid policy development and implementation have taken a very disappointing turn away from collaboration, transparency, and data for reasons that don’t make any sense (there are a few theories). Just a few of the persistent problems in PCMH+,…

Read More